Various types of imaging devices are used to capture images (e.g., image frames) in response to electromagnetic radiation received from desired scenes of interest. Typically, these imaging devices include sensors arranged in a plurality of rows and columns, with each sensor providing a corresponding pixel of a captured image frame.
From time to time, one or more pixels may exhibit anomalous behavior due to hardware imperfections, manufacturing tolerances, and/or other causes. For example, some pixels may appear to flicker from frame-to-frame. As another example, some pixels may deviate from an expected response in comparison with other pixels. Such anomalies can be distracting and provide a misleading representation of the imaged scene.
Although anomalous pixels may sometimes be recognizable by a human being viewing the resulting image frames, it is generally impractical and cumbersome to rely on human detection. Moreover, existing machine-based approaches are frequently unsatisfactory in achieving reliable detection of anomalous pixels in an efficient and rapid manner.